There's a slight "pop" in audio recordings

A friend does recordings for a radio station on his PC using SAW32 and/or SAW Plus software; he reads news clips, commercials, PSA's and the like into a microphone plugged into his laptop. It was flawless until about a week ago. Now, there's a small "pop" in everythings he records. It appears at random and it's barely even audible, and in most cases, it wouldn't be an issue; but this is for radio stations and for his work (he also runs some type of recording service) so the recordings MUST be flawlessly professional. He told me that the problem started about the same time that Outlook Express started having issues: after reading emails for 5 to 10 minutes, an error comes up saying that there isn't enough free memory, or an out of memory error. If you close OE, and open it up right away, it'll run fine for another 5 or 10 mins and then it happens again. I think the audio problem and the OE problem are related. I think that something is using up memory in the background casuing the "pops" and making OE crash. I did a repair install of Windows and that didn't help. I ran full malware scans and removed some minor stuff (tracking cookies, MyWay toolbar, etc). So, any ideas? What would cause the "pop" and the out-of-memory error in Outlook Express? Any and all help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanx.

hd2k

PS- the laptop has an Internet Explorer problem too, but it's minor and a topic for a different thread.

 

Yeah... tried it with 4 different microphones, including his high-end professional mike. The pop is barely even audible. I couldn't even hear it until I used headphones, and even then it's not real obvious. But the recordings MUST be perfect due to their very nature and what's being done with them. The software being used is called "SAW Plus32" and he told me that the company no longer makes or supports this particular version and only has a $10,000 recording suite of software now geared towards large professional studios. Of course, he doesn't have the install CD's for the software anymore (big surprise why is it that people can't seem to hang on to the important stuff? They know exactly where the Everquest or World Of Warcraft CD's are) and it's not available anymore. I think the problem is related to a memory issue that Outlook Express is having; both problems started at about the same time... I'm running a RAM diag on the PC right now.... we'll see how that goes.

hd2k

 

Have you considered uninstalling, and reinstalling OUTLOOK EXPRESS ?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263837/en-us
Some research found references to a fault showing out of memory in outlook express
http://support.microsoft.com/search...MORY+IN+OUTLOOK+EXPRESS&adv=&mode=r&cat=False

 

Thanx for the link! I'll be sure to check it out. As for the recording problem, it turns out that if the software's folder from Program Files is copied to a thumb drive, it can be run on a different PC. So I'll try that; make a few recordings and see if it pops...

hd2k

 

Increase RAM, increase page file (virtual memory) size, try Thunderbird, or any other OE alternative. I usually remove OE files, folder from Program Files in safe mode, after removing it in add or remove programs, Windows. Then remove its references in the registry. Possibly clean male and female connection points. Sounds like a real PITA. Hope you can work it out.

Bug

 

So far, yes, it is. Thanx for the sympathy
I spoke with the PC's owner and he said the OE problem was the least of his worries, and to focus on getting the sound recording fixed. So I installed the recording software on his desktop, moved 20gb of sound files over also so he can at least get his work done. When I ran the recording software on his desktop PC, it did NOT pop, so the issue is definitely with his laptop PC and not the recording software. I was almost hoping it was the software; it would be an easier fix. Maybe. Anyhow, now I need to find out why these random pops are getting into the recordings on his laptop, and not on other PC's. I've tried it on both PC's with the exact same hardware as much as possible; of course the sound cards are different and the laptop's obviously cannot be swapped out. So I need to figure out why it would start the popping just out of the blue when it used to be perfect... ARRRRRGH!!! Driving me @#%*&$#! CRAZY!!!

hd2k

 

Wasn't worth trying uninstal and reinstalling outlook express, then, as it started around the same time - could it not be linked ?

 

I'm back at work today (Monday) after putting all this out of my mind for 36 hours. And, yes, I'm going to uninstall/reinstall OE, and do some memory management on the laptop and see if I can't get this dialed in correctly. I just needed some down time; I had (still have) alot on my plate and needed a break before I lost it :banghead Anyway, I'm going to be working on the laptop most of today and will post any results (or lack thereof). Thanx for everybody's help and interest....

hd2k